Rear mount engines

[Supra967]

if its just a bash around buggie, i'd be going straight for a vw engine and box. Air cooled, carbied, simple. In fact, i'd be finding a cheap, rusted out vw beetle, ripping off the fenders/roof and using that.

[Supra967]

double post

[wa5]

No matter what you choose, dont skimp on Roll bar/ cage or seat belts, They dont have to be the prettiest thing out there, but they do have to work.

YOU HAVE TO USE THE SEAT BELTS EVERY TIME you are in it.

Around this area, one bloke died around 40 years ago, as he had no cage, another suffered a severed spinal cord a little over 20 years ago. his buggy had a good solid cage, and harnesses, he just wasnt wearing the latter when he rolled,.... he was only going for a steady run to charge the battery.

[eeeyan]

If you want something a bit mroe powerful than a Vdub motor and a mid mount is more your style surely a Subaru motor and g/box would work? something like an EJ22 would be powerful and torquey enough for what your doing and would be fairly cheap to pick up not to mention they are very strong donks for what they are. with straight pipes and a manual would sound sik as too

[jwebb2876]

If the buggy's small enough a '80's FWD Colt drivetrain with the 2-range "8 speed" manual gearbox would work.
My cousin has a buggy with a 2.6L Magna drivetrain in it. It's got a 4.01:1 final drive but he runs car wheels with LT tyres so that's no problem really.

[mullett]

I second most of those comments, any fwd combo will be MUCH easier, cheaper and more available to find, and not significantly more difficult to fit. Notable also that 'MR2' style configuration is actually mid-engined, VW style (motor behind the gearbox) is 'rear engined'

If you're going to use a FWD setup, you want one with:
Cable shifting that can easily be adapted to run the opposite direction
Simple wiring
Suitable driveshafts (I'd recommend using the factory hubs, and making the swingarms etc to suit the std driveshafts, unless you want serious travel.
Hydraulic clutch (hyd lines are much easier to make)
And as mentioned before: A serious cage and harnesses, and a good, 4 WHEEL braking system, which can be pillaged from your parts car/front cut.

-RM

[Noof]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.
Roll cage is no problems... buggy is based on the Piranah by Edge..... Good starter buggy I think.
Will see what I can find round the wrecking yards in Adelaide across the break.... should be fun


Cheers
Nathan

[Supra967]

http://www.edge.au.com/forum1/viewtopic.php?t=4535

[Noof]

Thanks Supra,
This says that 500 cc to 1000 cc so in the spirit of Toymods I was going to look at 1600 and above!


I understand weight etc.. but would rather work with a car engine than a bike?

Cheers
Nathan

[mullett]

A bike engine will be a lot easier to mount/deal with, as the entire engine/box package is in one much smaller unit. You might find that mounting a car engine alone will be troublesome, let alone attaching a gearbox to it also...Also the handling will be destroyed by the extra weight. If you're deadset on using a car engine, you're better to sell the chassis you have, and build a dedicated chassis to suit the motor/box you intend to use.

-RM

[jwebb2876]

Grab a CB1100 motor, that should fly lol

[wa5]

But the FWD car setup, comes as a complete package... Motor , trans, final drive and most importantly some kind of suspension...
The bike motor wont come with a rear axle (obviously) and will need an axle mounted corectly for the bike chain to run on.... it will get a lot more complicated if you want IRS.

On the topic of axles mounted correctly for chains... I saw a home made buggy a few years ago, where the builder had made the pivot for the trailing arm a couple of inches behind the centre of the sprocket (on the gearbox output shaft of the bike motor)... the result being that every time he hit a big bump, the distance between the centreline of the front and rear sprockets would shorten... and the chain would fall off.

[Supra967]

the bike engine will run cv's and a-arms, just like a car engine. You get a solid mounted centre shaft with a sprocket and disk brake on it, then cv shafts (or slip yoke uni joints i think are what the edge use) to the wheels. You can buy these straight from The Edge...

COST TO BUILD:

Buying the raw materials, fabricating and welding the Piranha parts yourself to the pans will cost approximately $2500 to $3500 Australian minus motor to construct the complete vehicle.

Depends on how much kit he has bought from the edge (if any), but like mullett said, could be a real pain in the bum to get a car engine in the frame, not to mention weight. $3500 grand is great considering you get all the drive bits and pieces. If you go with a car engine/drive setup, you'd need to use hubs and axels (and make the a-arms to suit), may need new cvs of the correct length etc. Price could add up quick.

[Noof]

Thanks everyone for the input. This is a rolling project and so the frame has not really been built past the beginning of the "engine bay". We are looking to get hold of the engine before going any further.

Will the weight really be that much different? I mean a large bike engine.... maybe 100 kg? car 160 ish?

Cheers
Nathan

[Mr Revhead]

Do you guys have the FWD imprezas there? engine and box from one of those, the 1800 makes plenty of power for a small buggy. And if you want more, ej20....
the subie engines are very small and compact